Glen Campbell

Music legend Glen Campbell and Alzheimer’s disease have been intertwined in the news lately. The country singing superstar was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2011. After the diagnosis, Glen and the Campbell Family band decided to set out across America on their “Goodbye Tour.” Filmmaker James Keach followed along, which resulted in the documentary “Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me.” The film is being screened in Edmonds on April 18. Director James Keach will be in attendance, along with Glen’s wife Kim and his children Ashley and Shannon, to discuss the making of “I’ll Be Me.” A short concert by Glen’s children will follow. More information about the event can be found at the end of this article.

In 2011, Glen Campbell set out on an unprecedented journey across America. They thought his final concert tour would last five weeks but instead it went for 151 sold-out shows over a triumphant year-and-a-half across America.

What made this tour extraordinary was that Glen Campbell had recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. He was told to hang up his guitar and prepare for the inevitable. Instead, Glen and his wife went public with his diagnosis and announced that he and his family would set out on a “Goodbye Tour.”

Glen Campbell with his daughter Ashley on the “Goodbye Tour.” Ashely, along with Glen’s two sons, joined him on the tour – which lasted for 151sold-out shows all across America over one-and-a-half years

A film, Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me, documents this amazing journey as he and his family attempt to navigate the unpredictable nature of Glen’s progressing disease using love, laughter and music as their medicine of choice.

Glen Campbell’s musical and entertainment lifetime, covering over five decades, is remarkable for its breadth, popular appeal and musical achievement. His biggest run of hits – Gentle on My Mind, By the Time I Get to Phoenix, Wichita Lineman, Galveston, Rhinestone Cowboy and Southern Nights – put him in the pop elite of the late 1960s and early 70s.

Campbell, one of 12 children, grew up in severe poverty. “He picked up his first guitar at age 4. He was a natural,” reported Anthony Mason on CBS Sunday Morning. “By the early Sixties, he’d played his way to L.A. Though he couldn’t read music, Campbell quickly became one of the most sought-after guitarists in the city, getting a lot of session work.”

This session work was with the famed “Wrecking Crew,” a group of studio musicians who backed hundreds of pop, rock, R&B and soul stars in 60s, 70s and beyond. His skill with the guitar provided the background for many musical artists including the Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Bobby Darin and Merle Haggard, to name only a few. He even toured for six months with the Beach Boys when Brian Wilson left the band for a time.

Campbell’s solo career took off in 1967 with the hit By the Time I Get to Phoenix. He won four Grammys that year and was hailed as country music’s first crossover star.

Still, the seventh son of a sharecropper from Delight, Arkansas never lost the country in his soul.

His string of hits kept coming, and in 1968 the Smothers Brothers asked him to host their summer replacement show. Glen’s TV show, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, ran for four seasons and made him a household name.

In his interview on Sunday Morning, Campbell recalled a surprise visitor backstage at the Goodtime Hour. “A guy comes up and he says, ‘Is Glen Campbell here?’ It was John Wayne! He had his little girl with him and she liked The Goodtime Hour. That’s how I got THAT gig, you know?” The gig he was referring to was a major role in the 1969 film True Grit, starring John Wayne.

Campbell tried to turn down the offer, saying he had never acted before. But as Campbell relates it, “He said, ‘Oh well, hell, you can do that, Glen!’ It was Duke, ya know? Whaddya gonna do?”

Campbell won a Golden Globe “most promising newcomer” nomination for his role. Always humble, Campbell said, “I looked so bad compared to John Wayne. He won the Oscar!”

In 1975 Campbell released The Rhinestone Cowboy, which became his first number-one hit. He seemed on top of the world.

But his well-documented troubles and struggles with drugs and alcohol soon followed and stayed with him into the 1980s. “Yeah, I went crazy,” Campbell told Mason. “I went stupid.”

Mason reported that by the time Kim – then a dancer with the Rockettes – met him on a blind date in 1981, he’d had three marriages, five children, a coke habit and a drinking problem. “Why did you stick with it?” Mason asked Kim.

She almost gave up, she confesses, but her husband finally became clean and sober. “I’m a jewel now,” Campbell said light-heartedly.

Glen Campbell is recognized as a virtuoso musician and popular entertainer

Campbell shared that he overcame his demons through family and faith. And through the years, he remained a top touring artist with sons Cal and Shannon and daughter Ashley becoming key members of his band. In 2011, Campbell released Ghost on the Canvas, which USA Today called “a museum-quality masterpiece.”

Shortly after he recorded the album, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Glen and his wife Kim decided to reveal his condition in 2011 because he still wanted to play concerts. “Glen is still an awesome guitar player and singer,” said Kim at the time. “But if he flubs a lyric or gets confused on stage, I wouldn’t want people to think, ‘What’s the matter with him? Is he drunk?’ ”

James Keach, who directed the documentary, said about the film, “I think telling the story of an incredible musician with a genius ability to entertain people has put a face on Alzheimer’s in a way that people are going to be uplifted by. It’s very touching…very poignant. [But] they’re also going to laugh. This is ‘Rocky’ with a guitar; this is about a guy who was told to hang up his guitar, and he said, “I ain’t done yet.’ What is really inspiring was the way audiences behaved…they lifted him up.”

“The film shows Glen to be the hero that he is,” said Kim. “I’m really proud of him for what he’s done to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s. The film celebrates his career and his life and his courage.”

The Goodbye Tour was a family affair, and Campbell was only able to perform because his family was behind him. His wife stayed close by, and his sons and daughter played in the band.

His daughter Ashley kept a close eye on him onstage.

“He looks at me a lot and I just smile at him,” she said during the tour. “And he looks back at the audience with a little more confidence.” Her father did have some slip ups, and he’d joke about them. “Always remember this, friends: if you do it perfect, they’ll want it that way every time!”

At the L.A. premier of the documentary, Glen’s son Cal said, “I’m going to look back and it’s going to be the best family memories ever. Your heart breaks every night when you see somebody struggling…it just breaks your heart,” he said of traveling with his father on the concert tour. “But when you see the things he did to triumph over it…I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Ashley said, “I think that he would be happy that he is making a difference and that he’s inspiring people.”

Last year at the Senate Special Committee on Aging to address Alzheimer’s disease, Ashley was the first to testify, recounting Glen’s diagnosis and their decision to launch the goodbye tour to give her father a chance to connect with family, friends and fans through music.

Sitting next to her dad during the hearing, she spoke movingly about her father’s struggles. “Dad thought it was important for people to know you can keep doing what you love—that life doesn’t end right away when you get Alzheimer’s. It was also so important for my dad to take action and help spread the word about the need to find a cure for Alzheimer’s. I think a person’s life is comprised of memories, and that’s exactly what this disease takes away from you,” she said with tears streaming down her face.

Campbell, who turns 79 this month, lives in an Alzheimer’s treatment center in Nashville with a fulltime caretaker and frequent visits from friends and family. His wife describes him as content and cheerful. He still plays the guitar a little, and “perks up to the sound of live music when one of his musically-inclined kids drops by with guitars or banjos to play for their father and other facility residents,” writes Randy Lewis of the L.A. Times.

And, adds Kim, “He still understands the universal language of smiles and laughter and joy.”

The Academy Award nominated documentary, "Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me" is showing at the Edmonds Center for the Arts, located at 410 4th Avenue North in Edmonds on Saturday, April 18 at 7:30pm. Director James Keach will be in attendance, along with Glen’s wife Kim and his children Ashley and Shannon, to discuss the making of the film. A short concert by Glen Campbell’s children will follow. A portion of each $20 ticket goes to the local chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. For tickets, call 425-275-9595 or visit www.edmondscenterforthearts.org/events/ill-be-me-documentary-film. The film is presented by The Hearthstone and Village Cove at Greenlake.

MORE INFORMATION

Glenn Campell’s final song, “I’m Not Gonna Miss You,” is featured in the documentary; it won the Grammy Award for Best Country Song and was nominated for an Academy Award. He wrote the song with his longtime music partner Julian Raymond after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. It was recorded in one day after only four takes with his old recording buddies from the “Wrecking Crew.” Glen’s wife Kim considers it a love song for her—its lyrics include: “You’re the last person I will love / You’re the last face I will recall / And Best of all, I’m not gonna miss you.”

Glen Campbell has played for presidents and the royal family. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, to say nothing of the lineup of Grammys, Country Music and other awards a mile long.

The Alzheimer’s Association has created the Glen Campbell Courage Award to honor those who promote awareness of Alzheimer’s disease and move people to action. In 2014, Glen Campbell and his family were the first recipients. He also received the Sargent and Eunice Shriver Profiles in Dignity Award. “The brave public disclosure of Glen Campbell’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis and coast-to-cost farewell tour that was captured in I’ll Be Me brought Alzheimer’s out of the shadows and on to a stage, bringing much needed attention to the Alzheimer’s cause,” said Harry Johns, president of the Alzheimer’s Association.

For more information about the documentary I’ll Be Me, visit www.glencampbellmovie.com.